


We Need To Talk

by tori1116



Category: DCU (Comics), Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics), Red Hood/Arsenal (Comics)
Genre: ...i think, Crack and Angst, Fix-It, I Don't Even Know, Lian Thinks They Should Date, M/M, Post-Break Up, Post-Red Hood/Arsenal, They Broke Up and Now They're Friends Again
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-17
Updated: 2017-08-17
Packaged: 2018-12-16 15:41:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11831823
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tori1116/pseuds/tori1116
Summary: Jason received a talk from a five-year-old little girl who was raised by a single parent and just wanted her father to be happy.“We need to talk about you and daddy. I think you should do something, Jay.”“Sure, what do you want me to do.”“I want you to…I think you should ask daddy out. On a date. And you should kiss him. And you should--And you two should made babies.”





	We Need To Talk

**Author's Note:**

> I just couldn't shake off the idea of Lian would be protective of her daddy just as her daddy is protective of her. And I like innocent kid who is secretly a clever little devil. So, that's the Lian I wrote.
> 
> Comments and kudos are highly appreciated!

The closing credits strolled up at the end of the episode. The whole thing was stupid, and cheesy. All those pathetic love drama was completely unnecessary. Those people on the show should really grow up and get their heads out of their asses. He turned his eyes back to the cellphone he had in hand, after the stupid teenage love drama had lured his eyes away for about an hour.

Below the couch he was slumping on, the little one who was sitting on the floor and leaning over the small table had still got her eyes gluing on the TV. Her brows were knitting intently the whole time and she didn’t seem to find her way out of the enchantment until a moment later.

Slowly, she gave a look to the crayon she had been holding loosely in her hand, before she put it down carefully on the table with other scattered crayons and the doodle she was supposed to be drawing but had forgotten a long time ago.

“We need to talk,” she announced suddenly, leaning her side against the small table and put her arm on the barely-started doodle. Again, he looked up from his phone, intrigued by the earnest expression she was wearing.

“Yeah?”

“Yah, we need to…” She trailed off a little, glanced back at the TV over her shoulder, trying to recall something. “We need to talk about daddy.”

“What about him,” putting the phone down, he asked casually without sitting up. The look on her little face made it seem like it was a highly serious matter. He thought for a second.

“Is it the Alan kid?” He regarded her with a bit of sympathy.

Despite how the idiot always self-proclaimed to be the coolest dad ever (“ _It’s a fact, I **am**  the coolest dad ever,_  ** _she says so_** ,” the idiot had declared sternly. “ _She was being nice, you poor thing. And she said the **bycocket**  is ‘super cool’ too, so what’s your point._”) and he prided himself on never being those tight-asses, stuck-up old men who never trusted their children to make their own decision, but when the situation arose, he could be a little (a lot) crazy.

A situation such as his little girl come home from the nursery school one day, and announced that she had been married to one of her classmates.

The headmistress of the nursery school had had a long talk with the idiot after he’d gone to the learning center and threaten one of her young students.

“ _Keep your slimy hands to yourself and stay away from my daughter, you dweeb,_ ” apparently, that’s what he had told Alan, “ _Or I’ll glitter your hair and put frog in your lunchbox._ ”

“ _You do realize they’re playing house, right? And the kid is like, what? Five-year-olds?_ ” he had said, once he had heard about how the idiot had been called to the headmistress office.

“ _If he’s old enough to know the concept of marriage, then he’s old enough to face the consequences of marrying a guy’s daughter behind his back,_ ” the idiot had confuted unmovingly. “ _And he told the headmistress, seriously! He couldn’t even man-up and try to earn my respect! What kind of a man is he?_ ”

“ _He’s not. He’s a five-year-old,_ ” he had stated out simply, kind of hoping he could be there, when the idiot had the “man-to-man” talk with the kid, or had been called to the grown-up office and having a lecture like an idiot he was, instead of just hearing it afterward. It sounded hilarious. And it was actually quite admirable that he would step up for his little girl like that, in spite of the craziness of it.

“ _He won’t tell the headmistress if it was me who gave him the talk,_ ” he had said nonchalantly after taking a brief thought. “ _I could make him pee his pants._ ”

Roy had stared at him with squinted eyes.

“ _I have guns, you know._ ”

“ _What is wrong with you. He’s a five-year-old, for Christ’s sake,_ ” Roy had said, looking slightly turned on (Don’t ask him how he knew that).

“What did he do to Alan now?” he asked.

“It’s not Alan,” the little thing told him, with her nails picking the doodle on the table mindlessly. “We’ve divorced.”

“That’s good. Your dad would be thrilled to hear that.”

She nodded. “I still like him,” she said, “But I want something more. And he just wants fudges.”

“Seems like you have your differences in life.”

“Yah,” she nodded again, seemed a bit rueful. Then she went back on topic. “We need to talk about you and daddy. I think you should do something, Jay.”

“Sure, what do you want me to do.”

“I want you to…I think you should ask daddy out. On a date. And you should kiss him. And you should--And you two should make babies.”

He stared blankly at her for a few seconds, thinking if this had anything to do with the teenage-love-drama she had just seen on the TV. He probably should’ve turned to the Disney channel or something, there’re too many horny teenagers kissing on the screen. But she had said “it looks cool, lets watch it”, and she got that earnest Harper look that she inherited straight from her father. Nobody was allowed to know, especially one certain redhead, but if he had a weakness, that damn look might be it.

Plus, she had said, “ _Daddy would say it’s too gross for me to see. But you’re cooler than daddy, right?_ ” So, yeah, he had gotten a bit competitive. But who could blame him? He’s always the cool guy.

Under the intent gaze of hers, he opened his mouth carefully, “I’m pretty sure unless something really freakish happens to our universe, the last thing you just said is gonna be impossible.”

“But I like babies,” she frowned. “You and Uncle Dick are brothers, and Damian, and Timothy. I want to have brothers too.”

“Trust me, sweetheart, siblings are annoying. And if you have to have one, you should have a sister. Like Cass. Cass’s cool, right? Cass’s way cooler than those dumdums. She’s less noisy.”

“Yah, Cass’s cool. And Stephy. Stephy’s fun,” she agreed with a nod. “So does that mean you and daddy would only make girl babies? ‘Cause that’s cool too.”

“No. Sorry, sweetheart, no babies. I can’t see how that’ll happen,” he replied apologetically.

“What makes you think I should do any of those things with your dad anyway.”

“’Cause you should. It’d make daddy happy.”

“So do a lot of things. Like pizza, or movie night, or kicking bad guys’s asses, or you don’t marry any of your classmates in the near future.” Or in a long future, actually. Seeing how the idiot had cried to him “ _But I don’t want her to be married! Guys suck, Jay! And marriage is stupid_ ”, he really couldn’t see Roy would be fine when the day come. He was definitely the kind of crazy dad who would stalk the guy who dates his daughter and ambush the guy in a dark alley with bow and arrows.

“Did your dad say something to you?” he asked with caution.

“No,” she said. “But he should have a date. Auntie Dinah says so too. She told daddy the other day. She said he should stop fooling around and find someone, because I’ll be growing up faster than he thinks and he would be all torn up when I start to date.”

He creased his brows in surprise. Not what the Canary had said, but, “They let you hear that?”

“No. I just heard them. They didn’t know I was listening,” she said. “I’m always listening.” She looked at him meaningfully. And it’s suddenly got him to realize that she was also the child of her mother too. Roy was never especially good at stealth. If she could eavesdrop without Roy and  _Dinah_  noticing, then she must be quite an expert.

“I saw you, Jay.” As if to confirm his suspicion, she said, “You kissed daddy that night on the couch, when he’s asleep.”

He glared at her in pin-drop silence.

Seconds later, he hauled himself up, placed his phone aside and sat on the couch properly.

“That is not a ‘baby making’ kind of kiss,” he clarified, ”Or a ‘date’ kiss. It’s--like how your Auntie Dinah kisses him. Or how he kisses you.” 

“Yah?”

“Yeah.”

“So it’s a ‘love you’ kiss.”

Okay. He could see the problem.

It was an act of whimsy, however.

He had been in the neighborhood that night after busted his ass off working on a secret operation for the old Bat for weeks, so he had decided to give the Harpers a visit. After Lian had gone to bed, he and Roy had started a movie marathon. Then Roy had fallen asleep, with a bowl of popcorn on his lap. He had reached out and taken away the bowl before it tipped off, and Roy, feeling the approach, had shuffled closer to him and leaned against his shoulder, looking exactly like the red-haired idiot Jason had used to partner with years ago (Especially when he had finally gotten rid of that hideous soul patch that he had declared it had made him look sophisticated when in truth it just made him look like a jackass).

So he had gotten a bit softened by the sudden nostalgia. But just because he had brushed a kiss on that ginger head didn’t mean he had any reason to ask the idiot out on a date. He hadn’t even thought about dating Roy when they had been partners, who had been sleeping with each other.

Sometimes people don’t go on dating just because they might have deep affection for one another, or that they had found the other sexually appealing, or that they were one of the most important people in each other’s life, and some of them would’ve died or killed a large amount of people before letting anything bad happen to the other and his little one.

He tried his best to explain, “It’s complicated.”

She looked at him for a long moment.

“What is.”

“What?”

“What is so complicated?”

She tipped her head and regarded him with patience.

“You love daddy, you ask him out on a date. You guys can dress up, and go to a restaurant, or go see a movie, or go dancing. Then you kiss, and you’ll be together. It’s simple.”

“It’s not—simple.”

“Why.”

_Because we are finally friends again, after I’ve ended things with him years ago so he could have a life he deserves._

They hadn’t talked to each other for a long while since the day he had left. The first time they had run into each other, Roy didn’t even look at him, and he didn’t look at Roy either. Then it had come the second time, when he’d had to join forces with Dick and his team under Batman’s order. He had headed to leave once the crisis had passed, Roy had surprised him by greeting him with a “Hey”.

“ _Hey,_ ” he had replied, finding his voice suddenly become too dry. Roy had been looking at something on the ground with devotion.

“ _How have you been._ ”

“ _Fine,_ ” he had said. “ _I’m still kicking. How have you been._ ”

“ _Good. I have a baby,_ ” Roy had told him offhandedly without context. “ _And I’ve talked to Ollie the other day. We’re cool now._ ”

“ _That--sounds great._ ”

“ _Yup._ ”

“ _Yeah._ ”

They had stood in silence for a moment. Until Roy had run a hand over his buzz-cut hair, let out a sigh, and looked up at Jason with determination. Apparently, having a baby had granted him a new perspective on life, which had gotten him to realize that he was a grown-up now, so he should act like a grown-up and face thing like a grown-up.

“ _If I could patch things up with Ollie, then I can talk to you too,_ ” he had tossed Jason a half-ass smirk. “ _We can talk,”_  he had shrugged suggestively, then gone back into silence for a few seconds.

 _“We are still friends, right?_ ”

The fact that it would be a question the redhead had ever needed to ask had kind of broken his heart a little.

“ _Please don’t make me say it,_ ” he had pleaded softly.

“ _What._ ”

“ _That you are always my friend._ ”

Roy had frowned at him for a moment.

“ _Should we hug?_ ”

“ _God, no._ ”

Roy had shot him a criticizing look.

“ _Damn you, Jaybird. You are like the worst best friend I’ve ever had._ ”

After that, Roy had started texting him about some weird-ass thing that happened in the Titans (“ _Explain to me the difference between you guys and the **Teen**  Titans again,_” he had replied multiple times), and he had sent Jason some pictures (mostly the selfies of him and Lian) whenever he felt like it. Then one day he had received a text from Roy when he had been doing nothing in particular. “You should come by, we've got pizza,” Roy had told him, so he did. He was only like a city away from the neighborhood, so it’s no big deal.

Lian gave him a look.

“Auntie Dinah’s right,” she said. “Daddy is going to get older, and I’m gonna get older. And if I’m married, then he will be alone, and sad.”

He hunched over, with his hands on his lap, taking a moment to think.

“He got his friends and his family. He won’t be alone,” he told her. “And what about your Auntie Donna. If he wants to date someone, he could ask your Auntie Donna out. He likes Donna. Auntie Donna’s great, right?”

“Yeah. No.”

“’No’? What do you mean ‘no’? I thought you love Auntie Donna.”

“I do. But Auntie Donna doesn’t  _love him_  love him.”

“How’d you know,” he frowned with suspicion.

“Because I heard him saying to Auntie Dinah. He said he hoped it’d work, but it doesn’t. He said a gal like her is meant for the bigger thing, and he’s just a guy. So it’ll never go anywhere. Then Auntie Dinah said ‘ _well, there’s a guy_ ,’ and daddy said ‘ _what_ ’, and Auntie Dinah said ‘ _don’t play dumb, honey, you know what_ ’, and then daddy was like, ‘ _what, Jay? We’re friends_ ’.”

“We are,” Jason said promptly with a composed face. She frowned at him.

“Uncle Dick’s a friend,” she pointed out incisively, “but he doesn’t stay over when he visits.”

Jason shrugged.

“I don’t have a safe house in here. I have nowhere else to sleep.”

“Yah?”

“Yeah.”

“Then why do you visit us all the times if you don’t have houses in here.”

Jason looked at her blankly.

Seconds later, he said, “It’s a nice neighborhood.”

“Yah?”

“Yeah.”

“So you wanna move in?” She suggested, “You can sleep in daddy’s room if you move in. You guys will be dating, so he won’t mind.”

He opened his mouth then closed it again.

“I can’t” he said, eventually.

“Why.”

_Because thing is working fine now. Because we are better off like this. Because the last thing he should do is jumping into the fire with me again._

“Because I’ve done bad things,” he told her with honesty. “I’ve hurt people. I’ve hurt him.”

The answer he gave seemed to make her sad. She dropped down her gaze for a moment.

“Are you still doing bad things?”

He paused. “No.” he said, “But that doesn’t change anything.”

She looked up again with her brows knitted.

“You’re wrong,” she said, looking remarkably like Roy with that stubborn look on her face.

“Daddy said people can change. If they want to. He wants mommy to change, but she won’t. And it hurts him. You don’t hurt him like that.”

“How’d you know.”

“Because the only time he looks sad it’s the time you leave, otherwise he’s happy. And you're happy too. You’re always happy when I see you.” She looked straight at him. Her eyes were sharp, she would make a great marksman. “You know he won’t ask you to babysit me if he thinks you would do bad things. He would just shoot you with arrows. He does that to bad people.”

“Yeah, he does,” he grinned a little. She flashed him a smile in return.

“You would be happy together, really. And it would be great. Even if you guys don’t make babies.”

“Yeah?” he laughed.

“Yah.”

“But what if your dad doesn’t want to go out with me.”

“He’ll go out with you, because he loves you,” she said with certainty. “People see each other a lot when they’re dating, you know. So you could be here a lot more, and he won’t be sad even when you leave, because he knows you’ll be back soon. It’ll make him happy. Don’t you want him to be happy?”

He took a long moment to ponder, though there’s only one answer.

“I do.”

She smiled and gave him an approving nod.

“Cool,” she said. “So you’ll ask him out on a date, and you guys will be happy. Not crying and sad like Samantha did when Josh kissed Mandy in front of her.”

He was baffled for a moment before he came to realize she was talking about the show she‘d just seen.

“Okay, I’ll—do my best,” he said with a solemn nod, didn’t see the little girl had left him any alternative.

“And one more thing, Jay.”

“Yeah?”

“If you broke his heart, I’m gonna put an arrow in yours.”

He stared at her, deeply admired the warning look she was giving him.

“Roy will be so proud if he hears this.”

Lian flashed him a grin.

 

 

 

 

 


End file.
